Highlights

“So proud and honored to have spoken to 392 cultural ambassadors from 49 countries at the Fulbright FLTA Mid-Year Conference in Washington D.C.” 2010-11 Moroccan FLTA alumnus Youssef Boutahar said. “My presentation on my Fulbright FLTA experience and the significant impact it has had on both my personal and professional development did leave a positive impression among participants as well as representatives from the U.S. Department of State.”

Under the recommendation of MACECE, Youssef Boutahar was invited by The Institute of International Education (IIE) to speak about his FLTA experience and its impact after the program to current 392 FLTAs from all over the world during FLTA Mid-Year Conference that took place in Washington DC on December 8-10, 2016.

September 3-6, 2015: MACECE organized a two-days orientation in Rabat and a weekend trip to Fes and the surrounding for our 2015-16 Fulbright U.S. grantees. The following link hightlights some parts of the orientation and week-end trip: Orientation for 2015-16 Fulbright U.S. grantees

♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣

MACECE’s first Chevron-Fulbright Grantee

Here’s Mr. Hamza Mansouri, the Commission’s first Chevron-Fulbright Grantee! Hamza’s at the rig site in the gas field of Meskala, near Essaouira. Hamza, an ONHYM employee, is headed to Texas A&M University in August to begin his program in petroleum engineering.

Through a generous grant from the Chevron Corporation, MACECE is able to offer Master’s or Ph.D. grants for Moroccan students in the fields of petroleum engineering, petroleum geology, and related sciences. If you are interested, please contact Ms. Laila Meftah at <l.meftah@macece.ma> or <lailafulbright@gmail.com> to see about the Chevron-Fulbright Grant. Like all of MACECE’s student grants, applications are due June 30, 2015.

For 10 years, Jalal Ismaili taught English to students in his home country, Morocco. This year, as part of the prestigious Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistantship program, he is teaching Arabic to American students at Drury, creating an important cultural exchange that emphasizes Drury’s global studies mission.

Ismaili teaches elementary and advanced Arabic courses as part of Drury’s Middle East Studies minor. Arabic is the official language of Morocco and 21 other countries in Africa and Asia.

Jalal Ismaili

The Fulbright program is funded by the U.S. State Department and managed by the International Institute of Education. It involves a rigorous, competitive application process, and provides opportunities for students, professors and scholars from the United States to teach and study abroad, and vice versa. Six current Drury professors and even some former students have been granted Fulbright awards to study and teach in their fields overseas.

For nine years, Drury has also hosted an Arabic Foreign Language Teaching Assistant through the program.

“One of the great benefits for Drury is that we get the opportunity for people to come from the Middle East and teach an important and challenging language,” says Dr. Jeff VanDenBerg, professor of political science and director of the Middle East Studies program. “More significantly, we get a view of the Arab world in a human way — a cultural exchange and understanding that’s not just through news headlines.”

Ismaili spoke with the previous Fulbright FLTA scholar who came to Drury last year and consequentially had high expectations about what he would experience when he came to Springfield.

“He told me that the people here were very kind and welcoming and I can see that throughout the campus,” Ismaili said. “I’ve taught about American culture, but I haven’t gotten to actually live it, so this opportunity has really helped me in my career and given me a better, cultural understanding.”

Ismaili holds an M.A. in multilingual translation and is currently working on his Ph.D. in English. During his time at Drury, he hopes to act as an ambassador for his country. He teaches Arab culture, history and customs in his language courses, and has guest-lectured in other professors’ classes.

“I think many students have misconceptions about the Arab world just as I have had misconceptions about Americans,” says Ismaili. “People tend to overgeneralize on both sides. Changing those views is one of my priorities. I don’t just want to tell others about the culture, I want to bring them into it and into the environment.”

###

Story by Kaleigh Jurgensmeyer, English and writing major at Drury. A version of this story first appeared in the Springfield News-Leader.